G20 --- ‘Shared growth beyond the crisis.’

11 NOV, 2010, 05.09AM IST, TK ARUN,ET BUREAU 

G20 to focus on growth beyond crisis

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NEW DELHI: As the Indian economy moves to a higher growth path, India’s stake in a stable, inclusive and representative global economic and financial system will only grow, said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh prior to departing for the fifth summit of the G20 taking place at Seoul, South Korea on Nov 11-12 . India will work for such a framework in the G20, which represents the 20 largest economies of the world and has replaced the G7 as the premier international body for economic and financial policy coordination. 

The G20 have been meeting at what can only be called a frenetic pace, four times already since late 2008, when the then US president George Bush took the initiative to convene and host the first meeting. The imperative to come up with a coordinated response to the financial crisis and the worst recession since the Great Depression necessitated such urgency. The worst of the crisis is behind us, but issues of reforming and coordinating regulation of finance , which is now too big and too interconnected to be regulated in individual geographies, brings the world’s leaders together in a huddle yet again. 

This is the first time, pointed out Mr Singh, a G20 summit is taking place outside a G8 nation. It’s a first for Asia, too. And the proud hosts, the South Koreans, are determined to make a success of the summit. They have brought development on to the G20 agenda, in addition to the core subjects of formulating a framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth, financial regulation reform and reform of the international financial institutions. Accordngly , the theme of the Seoul summit is ‘Shared growth beyond the crisis.’ India will work for a successful Seoul summit outcome in the form of a Seoul Action Plan, Mr Singh indicated. 

How to leverage global imbalances for bridging the infrastructure deficit in poor countries would be a focus of the meet, he said. This could take the form of mediating the reserves of the surplus nations for investment in infrastructure in countries like India. 

Building on the IMF reform — the voting power of developing countries has been increased, and those of developed ones, correspondingly increased — the Basel III norms for banks and regulatory reform would be the priorities in the financial sector.

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